Rasmalai

As promised to many of my friends, here I am sharing today Rasmalai recipe 🙂 Last week, I posted Sweet Potato jamuns that was a huge hit. Several have also tried and posted the pics, I am glad people have tried and shared it 🙂 Rasmalai is a paneer-based dessert that is dunked in a creamy condensed milk syrup. The milk is simmered for several hours along with some flavorful nuts to get an intense nutty flavor and is colored using saffron strands. Rasmalai is considered a very exotic dessert in India and I can never stop eating with just one. My plate has to have atleast 3 of them. They are sooo tender and juicy that they sometimes break before going into my mouth 🙂

My friend Charanya of Yes, I am Vegan has a wonderful blog with lots of vegan recipes. She will soon be posting her Vegan version of rasmalai, so will share her link once available 🙂 🙂

To make rasmalai balls:

Milk – 1 litre

Lemon juice/vinegar – 2 tbsp

Strainer – 1

Muslin cloth/Thin kitchen towel/kerchief – 1

All-purpose flour – 2 tsps

To make rabdi/milk syrup:

Milk – 1 litre

Sugar – 1/3 cup

Almonds – 1 tbsp (roughly chopped)

Pistachios – 1 tbsp (roughly chopped)

Saffron strands – few

Green Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

To make sugar syrup:

Sugar – ½ cup

Water – 3-4 cups

Green cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Make rabdi:

1. Take a big kadai/skillet preferably with a heavy-base and add 1 litre milk to it. Let it come to a boil.
2. Simmer and add the sugar, almonds, pista, saffron and green cardamom powder. Let it simmer on the lowest flame possible for about 30 minutes or until it reduces to about half in volume. Make sure to keep stirring it occasionally to avoid burning it.
3. Remove from heat and let it rest.

Making rasmalai balls:

1. Boil 1 litre milk and while still on heat, add the vinegar/lemon juice. Stir well. You will see paneer separating from the water. Strain and transfer the paneer to a muslin cloth/kerchief. Wrap tight and let it rest for 30 minutes to drain any more water.
2. Add the all-purpose flour to the paneer and knead it with a gentle hand to get a smooth dough-like consistency. You should be able to make balls out of it.
3. This recipe makes about 10 balls.
4. After rolling the balls, press each one to flatten it slightly.

Make sugar syrup:

1. Add the ½ cup sugar, water and green cardamom powder to a big saucepan and let it come to a boil. Transfer about ½ cup of this syrup to another small bowl and let this rest but let the syrup in saucepan boil on high heat.
2. Add the prepared balls in 2 batches while the syrup is still on high heat and is boiling. Cover with a lid and let the balls simmer for about 5 minutes.
3. Remove the balls and transfer them to the resting syrup in small bowl.
4. Make all the balls in this manner and then taking one ball at a time, gently squeeze each ball in between your palms to remove syrup out of them. Transfer to the prepared rabdi/milk syrup.
5. Refrigerate for atleast an hour and then serve cool with more topped almonds and pista.

Note:

1. It is very important to keep stirring the rabdi or else the liquid will burn at the bottom.
2. You may add more sugar if needed to the syrups.
3. The same recipe also works with sweet potato jamuns/rasmalai, which I have posted earlier. Just substitute paneer rasmalai with sweet potato jamuns.
4. If you do not have saffron strands, you may substitute with turmeric powder dissolved in water/milk. It works just fine.
5. You can try the same recipe with milk powder or condensed milk as well.

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